larry_b
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Posts posted by larry_b
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Hello Nancy:
Actually, I was thnking about a firewater dance, or some other kind of Fantasia type animation. i have LOTS of ideas for this character combo, but the time it takes to work on it is not as much as it should have been.
Anyways, This is one of many project sI am running in parelell.
-Larry B
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Thanks Nancy:
I have downloaded the ZIP file and seen hte MOV. I'll look into it a little biut later.
If you loved the fire blob, you may love to see the WATER Dude that was created to start me on my first production:
Of course there is the rigging, adn the texturing thing that needs to be done on the characters, and the Local (location of action) and Props to make. Not to mention the story but it is a GREAT start.
Thanks again for your help
-Larry B -
The tail controls alone are kind of mind blowing. Looks pretty sexy too.
You can check it out <here>.
And. . . Larry I promise I'll get cracking on the others ASAP.
Hi Wegg:
All I can say is ABOUT TIME! I remember putting the Work Order in like.. oh, close to ONE YEAR AGO!
HeH it wasn't that bad. I remember putting the order on hold anyways.
It sure is enjoyable to get into the GUTS of this rigg. Moved very nicely. Especially the tail. THAT is very smooth. It will be a GREAT pleasure working with this Dinosaur. For only $59 is Definitely worth the small price for such a High Quality Model!
(AND works great in V11 A:M too).
Ease of Mobility (animateable):
Beauty of Rendered Character:
Fun Factor (Use of Character Rig):
Overview:
If you love Dinosaurs, Easy to manipulate models Get this excellent model. it is well worth the time and energy it would have taken me to have textured/modeled/rigged!
I am sure the Fun Factor will increase once I figure out exactly how to move this heavy thing.
Last Note:
Rest Assured: Wegg PROMISED me that this Dino is already been House Broken.
(I seen pictures of the messes Wegg had to clean up)
So, what are you waiting for for only $59 you can enjoy this amazing EggProp!
Get it before it's extinct!
-Larry B* Wegg.. Thanks for finishing this project .. Now GET ONTO THE OTHER THREE DINOSAURS (please) *
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It would require too much knowledge of *how* you built the mesh. Watching the eggprops, anzovin, and studio45 (are they still around?) videos as well as the running through the cogs tutorial from 3dartz gives me a well rounded understanding of rigging and the insights to be dangerous before I hand the model to TSM to finalize....
Hi wwoelbel:
Studio45 (mark thompson) is still around.. I just talked to him and he still has a few available even though he isn't really doing much advertizing. They are old, but still EXCELLENT. To ask about ordering,
his tutorials were around $30 when he was back around v9 and 10. He is selling them for $14.95 to $19.95 each! If you are interested, send him an email at mark@thompson45.com and tell him I sent you.
Some of the tiles he had were basic modeling, Basic maerials and texturing, bones and relationships and character design CDs.
The character design was more of a drawing tutorial and done in live-action (of a paper and pencil). Still great casue it teaches all kinds of drawing techniques and drawing mainly in a static 'rotoscope' pose and even teaches about scale and drawing the front, top, and side views of a rotoscope.
About arguing about prices and things, there are a few ways you can look at it. Either self taught (and slow learning) or schooling (and pay but get fast learning) so:
1. Struggle along at your own paceor
2. Go to animation mentor (or other schools) and pay $$$ per course and spend a small fortune
3. My choice.. Stop squeeking and fork over a small fee to educate yourself off of others and spend a very small amount to learn. Then setup a self paced course.. Need to learn modeling, get a modeling cd, book, or whatever.. need to learn about rigging? get a rigging tutorial.. and so on.
anyways, back to work
Larry B -
Hi nimblepix:
Fun?? Pff... its an adiction!!
I do need to add lean.. probably good for when we add squash and strech.. there is what.. 21 or more things to consder with animation. isn't there?
Anyways, thanks again.. not much to look at, but it is a great start for a first.
Larry B -
Hi:
Just thought I'd share a first pass attempt at animation.
Second step on this will be to add squash and strech to the thing.
Then change teh background and add a simple face to the thing and carry on.
Just thought I'd share the lill project.
-Larry B -
Well, I have been at A:M for a few years. I don't remember sticking with the art of a:m book. But got equivelant from many otehr resources (almost all anzovins, all studio45, david rogers book, jeff paries book, to name a few). Also studied a LOT on animation principles (richard williams Animators survivalkit, Preston blair to name a few).
I understand some of the nbasic traditional animation principles but stalemated when it came to Animation, Special visual Fx (fire, water, smoke, rain, etc), UV Mapping (seamless) and mastering texturing. I sort of followed my own course (find a weak area and plug it with a book or cd).
So, with the basic foundation, I suppose ploughing through it would work for me. So once I finish taking a break from A:M I'll plough through this next segments in 2 weeks to a month I guess (I seem to plough through, burn out, take a break, and plough aain. Just another couple segments to learn before the first level is done and i cna make my own projects).
Thanks again
-Larry B
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Hi Martin:
Sounds great.
Just curious though. about how long is the 'schooling' take to get certified (in hours)?
Just wondering how long it would take someone th go through TAoAM and ABC.
Anyone done it all yet and know?
Thanks
-Larry B
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Hi Seven:
Nice tutorial. However this is using a Quatunian method. With the Euler method I was trying to figure out, all you need to do is rotate the bone a little to set the key at frame '0'. then at frame 1 second you can rotate the wheel 360 degrees.
With Quat method (default) the bone will rotate from where it is and take the shortest rout to complete the circle. So it will move backwards a couple degrees.
With the Euler method, the bone follows the exact way you turn the wheel So once you convert the drivers from Quat to Euler then you get an unlazy bone (one that goes all around and not look for the shorter way to do what is wanted).
I am not putting you down, Just want to help you be a better A:Mer.
I AM grateful that you took the time to create this tutorial (with wink
).I remember I once had a Reel player I made in a:m (just before casettes were on a box they were like filmstrip reels). I remember I was fighting with this and did figure that one out at one time. So once I had it done, I found that I had 1 bone, as the seconds number wheel has made 1 full pass I had another constraint move the 10's colum 1 number (roll like i think it was) . Then had it setup so after the 10's colum made 1 round the 100's colum would make 1 number move. Essentially I could animate the 1 bune and as that bone spins I was able to have all the others automatically spin. Next time I'm making a record player instead (no counters on that sucker)
Anyways, thanks again
-Larry B
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Hello again:
I have a posted update. but first, the feet are smartskinned. the one is rotated up the other is pointed down slightly. just to give a 2-views of the feet.
I have turned up transparency as many were saying, and thanks to Martin I also tried to make it a little see-through. I had trancparency to 100% yet reflectivity was too high to let a see-through apperance.
So, here is the new and slightly improved water droplet (not as many pass-rendered though)
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I was planning to do that as soon as I figure out how dynamic constraints work.
a confusing thing is that the constraint is asking for a target like the other constraints and i thought it just would bob along without being connected to interact with another bone.
This is probably the first character that survived. I have many others that are now in my graveyard of characters.
The waterdrop has also been the first attempt at smartskinning and will probably be used to start animation training from. 3D is very time consuming. It would be nice to find timesaving tips and ways to automate tasks.
anyways back to the digital drawing tablet.
-Larry B
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Thanks for the suggestion. I believe there is a very little transparency to the model. I am guessing i need to add a little more.
I was also thinking about flipping normals (so they point inward) and perhapse adding a blobby material effect so the inside is liquidy (of course i'd need the transparency higher then too
I'm glad you like it. Sharing with a few people teh comments I was getting from almost all of them were 'smurfy'.
-Larry B
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Here is my latest and best creation yet. I still need to make a couple other characters.
What do you think?
-Larry B
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wow 5 pages already
man I miss those Rants and Raves pages.. .. ..
It is wonderful to see how well people of all cultures races and religion can all get along here talking and sharing their animated pictures.
I have always wondered what the outcome to a question of mine is. I now sort of understand it better.. .. .. the question: what would happen when you bring a Mormon, a Jehovas Witness, an athiest a jew, and just for good mesure, a muslim together for a religious biblestudy. (no offence to either religions above).
Anyways.. .. .. .. there is a time, and a place for everything under the sun. This is the place for animation master collaboration. a place where people can come and share their artworks made in A:M.
I have seen all kinds of presentations here (A:M films) from the claymation like Snake animation which recreates the garden of eden right to the dancing of the Hunter gal.
Here in the forums we all come from different religions, cultures, and backgrounds. It is similar to me going to an athiests church (if they have one) and beat them over the head with bibles till they see visions of Mary and Jesus
What I am trying to say is A:M forums is a place that is for artists using A:M to come together to share their sucesses and failures of A:M. there may be a place where people go to and dig deep into their beliefs and mix them with artforms. but not here.
A suggestion is to perhapse goto yahoo groups and start your postings there and from within the forums invite people interested to join there. those interested can join and you can dig as deep as you want.
as for others, thanks for providing me with great entertainment
well, happy hashing
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I'd be more inclined to buy it if the price was like $6.99, and if I knew more about it. I don't know if that sounds too cheap or not, but I'd rather sell 100 tutorials at 6.99 than 10 at 19 bucks.
Hi:
I'm sure if you talk to Billy he MAY gladly sell you 100 tutorials for $6.99 each. You'd have to talk to him about that..
In the past he has sold me Bulk props at some form of savings
-Larry B
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I have a tutorial for a method of making an eye in v11. It's located here, but it's only online in Shockwave format.
Yup. it is a very good eye modeling tutorial too
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I find it odd that even decals apply to both sides of a patch.
Dacals are interesting.
If you have a decal, and apply it to a thin Spline square Turn the image around and you will see the mirror image on teh reverse. (think of decals as a stain glass window).
You would have to add depth to change the color, but doing so shouldn't be too much trouble. Just copy and paste the TOP moulding then paste a copy. then if needed, scale down the model moulding. Or just lay one clsoe to another.
Instead of copy/paste try extruding and pull it down a couple arrows (mini moving the extruded parts). Only thing to be careful for is internal patches if using this method.
Good Luck
Larry B -
Or you can see my tutorials online at www.zrrp.com/tut/Qvid If needed I can eventually get around to making a zip file containing the course of SWF videos.
Let me know
Larry B -
Hi:
I ha ave started studying walk cycles just today. I'm trying to get my character to do a nice walk but I have acidentally moved the legs wrong. Now my character is walking backwards
I am wondering if there is an easier way than having to re-animate the walk. (like select all teh keyframes and copy/cut. then past ae mirrored. that didn't work). a
Thanks again
Larry B -
First step is education. Animator's Survival Kit: a MUST read. Probably the only book you need in regards to the principles of animation.
Wow.. looking through my reference library for Animation I came across this book.. It appears that I have been reading at least a quarter of it (bookmarked part way thorugh).
I almost forgot I have had this book
Anyways now I have a ton to go by. Now that i am ready fro this stage, and can put it to good use (before I was overwhelmed with other stuff like A:M in other areas).
Thanks again for reminding me I have this resource.
Larry B -
Go into your options and check the mirror tolerance mine was set at 0 so I bumped it to 20 and it worked. Don't know if that was the right number but it worked.
Hi:
have a helpful resource that may help you with Mirror mode.
goto: http://zrrp.com/tut/Qvid/ then click on the mirror mode icon in manipulator tools to see all about mirror mode.
-Larry B
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Hi:
I was wondering what the best useage would be for using each animaton options, and why you would use one over the other (including some examples on what aniamation type works best for which style).
1. Animate using ACTIONS
2. Animate using Choreographies TRANSLATION
3. Animate using Choreographies constrain to PATH
I know htat actions make repeat actions easier, and something about needn gto bake actions to make editable in choreography. and that stuff like walk cycles and other repeated actions work best in this style.
What is the benifits of translation animation over path animation?
What would you use path and translation for? Path animation *can* be used for getting somethign to follow another item.. IE a person pointing at a flying bird.. however, wouldn't a constraint AIM AT work better here?
any other information on these questions would be most benificial.
Thanks
Larry B -
Hi..
Thank you everyone that has helped me so far..
From what I have been thinking and hearing is I need to start very simple. I have decided to work on the Preston Blairs 'Cartoon Animation's' Bouncing Ball project (where he illustrates squash and strech techniques) and work through animation from his book (cause the complexity is already broken down). I hope after going thorugh the book adn applying the techniques that they will carry over into other animation projects.
Before I go onto attempting the first project I have my first question:
When making the bouncy ball I will make a sphere. create a percent pose (-100 as squash, 0 as round sphere and 100 as strech). then to making the ball bounce, strech and squash appropriatly.
First question: what is the difference between choreographies 'path constraint' Versus 'actions' Versus translating the objects in the choreography.
From what i understand actions are repeatable (blinks, etc) where choreographies are for non repeatable actions (some walk cycles, and manual lip synching).
I am wondering what are the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and any tips on which method is best used for certian types of animation.. IE what would you use actions for.. what translation animations are good for, adn when you would use path constraints.
Over the next few months I think I will end up asking a LOT of questions. maybe break the record for 'person with the most posts'
Well, thanks again...this last section (animation/choreography) should almost conclude the 3 year basic foundation laying.
Larry B -
Hi:
All installs of A:M should have the inability to run the help files..
Hash has a sepperate install file that will install the reference files (such as help).
You can try this link ftp://www.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/Am2004/Reference.EXE (A:M 2004 for PC computerS).
Good Luck
-Larry B
Animated Fire for Larry b's Character
in Work In Progress / Sweatbox
Posted
Thanks dan. I'll dig out the little drip later and see what I can do to improve it. Its just going to take a little more time than I was hoping. Work has me full time now